Happy happy birthday to two delicious, funny and charming Buffistas--Matt and Cash. Together, they fight crime!

Happy Birthday Cashmere!

Cindy, I totally figured out the best ever part-time job for you. This AM's New York Times has an article about the complexity of medical billing paperwork and how patients are already sick and even well people can't figure it out. One of their people hired a consultant to manage the bills and figure out what she actually owed and make sure there were no weird extra charges. You should totally get into this market - you have a background in medical billing, right? And you've got great customer-relations skills.

Steph, where did you get Ray? A link would be great. There's so much out there if you google.

And a lovely, Happy Birthday to Matt as well!

And the dictionary say "goy" is offensive.

Mmm. There's mixed feelings on that. It's offensive only in that some people use it to mean "people not like me." The word actually means "nation" (or "people" maybe) in Hebrew, and is in fact used in the Bible to describe the Hebrew people themselves! I read, somewhere, how the word came to mean people outside the Jewish nature, but I've forgotten the exact route.

Of course, some Jews use it as an insult. But they could just as easily say "non-Jews" or "strangers who I condemn purely because they are different from me" as an offensive label. I could (theoretically only, of course) say "African Americans" or "homosexuals" in an offensive tone, but that doesn't make the words themselves offensive.

I'd say it's really no more offensive, by nature, than "gentile," though some may use it as such.

"shiksa," on the other hand, means "abomination" and is definitely offensive. Despite the fact that it's sometimes used lightly.

But I STG.

Do I need to be married to know what "STG" means?

Do I need to be married to know what "STG" means?

I was assuming "Swear to God." But I'm not married either. Could be something else.

Also, my mood really really REALLY is rock bottom, and I have to meet a friend's SiL for lunch in 10 minutes, b/c SiL wants to talk about careers in publishing/journalism, b/c she's considering a career change.

And in general, I certainly don't mind doing this. But not today.

And yet, off I go. At least it's a free lunch.

I get "Oh, I see you put away the laundry for once."

That's kind of rude. I got a variant of this, when my DH informed me that I never did laundry so he was having to do his own (it had been one of the things on my chore list). I was agog - I did laundry every weekend. But if it wasn't in the hamper, if it was, say, hanging in his closet, I didn't wash it.

Now we each do our own.

Do I need to be married to know what "STG" means?

I was assuming "Swear to God." But I'm not married either. Could be something else.

Oh! It probably is. My mind didn't go there.

My first job at big-Boston-hospital was as a (billing dept.) customer service rep., so I do (or at least, did) generally know how to read the bills, and insurance EOBs, etc., and have a good sense of what might be on the patient's bill due to an error on the part of either the billers, or the insurance company's claims processors.

My second job was as supervisor of that unit. I wrote off just about every bill anyone called me about, because I'm a pinko commie that way, and I was angry that big-hospital pretty much declared war against Clinton's healthcare plans, the day after he named his wife as head of the project. Really, they sent lawyers, guns, and money (and the guns might not just be a joke) to D.C.--the next day, after they had a big rally-the-troops moment with the troops (who were totally cheering for Hil).

My third and fourth jobs there were different, though. I was a project analyst, in both. I should have worked in the IT department, but I worked as an IT analyst for the Finance department. Three of my pet projects were very billing rules and medical coding (particularly Medicare, and particularly ESRD related) oriented, though.

So yeah, that would be great flea, until I had teh stroke. I think I'd have to do something like that on a volunteer basis, rather than for pay, because it's so personal to me when I see someone getting financially abused by the game.

Free advice for my friends though: Don't take "no" for an answer, even if the explanation the insurance company/billing people give you makes some sense. If you go high enough up the ladder, you'll get someone who will write off the charge for you, or find some obscure reason your claim should be covered.